Your research begins
You start at your host institution, join its doctoral school, and begin your project with your supervisory team. You create a Career Development Plan mapping the skills you want to build over the three years.
Training
A doctorate here is more than a thesis.
ORFeus trains you across the full toolkit of a fast-moving field, alongside a cohort of peers, in labs and companies across Europe.
What your PhD looks like
You join one of 15 leading research groups to do original work on the dark proteome. Around that, the network gives you something a single lab cannot: a structured, three-year training program shared across all partners, a placement in industry, and a built-in cohort of fellow researchers tackling the same big questions from different angles.
Three-year training program
The program is planned but dates, locations and details may still change as the network develops.
CTW 1: Ribo-Seq techniques
A virtual workshop introducing the core experimental method of the field: ribosome profiling. Led by the Baranov group at University College Cork.
School 1: Foundations in ORF research
Five days at the Princess Máxima Center in Utrecht. The full cohort meets for the first time. Sessions cover experimental design, microprotein mass spectrometry, reproducible multi-omics analysis, and the foundations of the shared data platform.
CTW 2: Bioinformatics and data integration
A two-day hands-on workshop at the University of Southampton on building bioinformatics pipelines, working with shared datasets, and the computational tools used across the network.
School 2: Advanced ORF techniques
Five days at the University of Oslo. Predictive modeling, machine learning for ORF detection, evolutionary genomics, and a closed-door troubleshooting session for computational projects with the network’s advisers.
Industry secondment
Around three months with one of the network’s biotech, pharma or research partners. You see how the science moves towards real products, and where many doctoral researchers find their next step.
CTW 3: Proteomics and immunopeptidomics
A two-day workshop at Ghent University on advanced mass spectrometry, thermal proteome profiling, and immunopeptidomics, the hands-on complement to the translational work in WP3.
School 3: From discovery to enterprise
Five days at the University of Freiburg. Protein interaction methods, chemical biology, single-cell validation, and a program on intellectual property and entrepreneurship led by Oncode Institute.
Academic secondment
Around four weeks, primarily virtual, with your interdisciplinary academic adviser at a leading institution outside Europe or in a complementary European lab. Tailored to your Career Development Plan.
CTW 4: AI and predictive modeling
A virtual workshop led by the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin on advanced machine learning, model deployment, and responsible use of AI in biological research.
School 4: Translational impact and closing
Five days at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. Clinical applications of immunopeptidomics, drug development case studies, the final ORFeus symposium, a job fair with industry partners, and the launch of the alumni network.
Thesis and what comes next
You complete your thesis, defend it at your degree-awarding institution, and join the ORFeus alumni network as part of the first generation of researchers trained to work across the full breadth of dark proteome biology.
Supported, across institutions and sectors
ORFeus is built so you are never reliant on a single relationship. Your research is guided by experienced supervisors and mentors who span more than one institution and reach across both academia and industry, so you gain different perspectives, networks and ways of working as your project develops.
The network-wide program
Training schools
Network-wide schools across Europe bring the whole cohort together for several days of focused learning, from the foundations of the field to its translational and clinical edge. They are also where you build the friendships and collaborations that outlast the PhD.
Focused technical workshops.
Hands-on, intensive workshops on the core methods of the field: ribosome profiling, bioinformatics, proteomics and immunopeptidomics, and AI for biological data. This is where you gain practical skills on the techniques that define the work.
An industry placement.
A placement of around three months with one of the network’s biotech, pharma or research partners, where you see how the science moves toward real products, and where many doctoral researchers find their next step.
Transferable skills.
Training in the skills every modern researcher needs, including open science and data sharing, research integrity, communication, and, with our partner Oncode Institute, intellectual property and entrepreneurship.
Is this you?
ORFeus is looking for curious, ambitious researchers who want to help shape a young field. You do not need to have done all of this before. You need to be excited to learn it. Positions are fully funded, on employment contracts, with the salary and allowances set by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
Recruitment is open, fair and based on merit, in line with the European Charter for Researchers.